Your TI Training Options – Part 3

Your TI Training Options – Part 3

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Step 5: Group Training Event

Now, you step into the realm of paid instruction. For price-per-hour, this is the lowest cost. A standard Total Immersion full 1-day workshop is about 7 hours (2x 90 minutes in in pool, 4 hours in class discussion and analysis) and the general price in the northern and western hemispheres is about $300 USD – around $42 per hour for instruction time (including classroom time).

You can see some workshops listed on the Total Immersion website, but these are certainly not all. These listed on the TI site are mostly in North America, as that seems to be the main focus of the TI website. Yet, there are many workshops happening around the world, especially in Europe and in East Asia. Most coaches tend to advertise on social media, and through their local and regional networks.

You can find the current list of certified TI Coaches in different countries by taking a look at the Coach Directory on the TI website.

You can find our group training events listed on our main page and under that title on our webpage menu. For local swimmers we prefer to offer a series of lessons, 1 session per week, over a few weeks – this provides the best learn-and-integrate process of all the training options, I think – as long as you do your’ homework in a few practices between those sessions.

Standard workshops will be one or two full days and provide an introduction of a complete set of skills and the drills and practice sets to develop those skills. I label them as ‘introductions’ because getting a full exposure to the sequence and learning method is guaranteed in that short amount of time, but radical transformation is not. You still need to go back home and do the work in the pool to get your brain and body rewired. Yet, so many people come away from a two-day workshop with marvelous transformation – it’s just that this cannot be assured to everyone because of all the personal factors that play into that result.

Several TI Coaches around the world offer special workshops, generally called ‘clinics’, focused on just one skill set, and then spend the time developing that skill set deeply from multiple directions. These might be a ‘breathing clinics’ or ‘kick clinic’ or ‘tempo clinic’ or ‘open water skills clinic’. These clinics would be appropriate after you have had an introductory workshop or a series of lessons with a TI Coach.

I recommend that you look up a coach in an area convenient for you, then inquire with that coach about opportunities you may participate in. Even in Europe, many of my coach colleagues speak English and may be open to giving private lessons if you happen to travel to their area on business or holiday. Many coaches know each other and collaborate so if one coach does not have an event for you he/she may refer you to another coach who does. I am not sure that kind of secure attitude and sharing of students happens in other coach organizations!

Step 6: Swim Camp

As a business owner, after adding up all the hours that go into producing one, swim camps are not as good of a revenue sources as workshops and other local events, but they are the best learning environment for individual swimmers, I feel. And it is so rewarding for me to build deeper relationship with my swimmers over the course of the week. In 4 to 6 days of practice, rest, discussion and refreshment – always in gorgeous locations – you have the best opportunity to make substantial improvements and get them to stick. With several days to experiment and unlock your personal swimming puzzle, you have a coach right there to guide you through the learning curve – to help you understand what’s going on and how to work around those challenges.

In terms of price – when subtracting the travel and lodging expenses, my swim camps generally cost a swimmer about $32 an hour for instruction time. But there is all that travel and lodging expense so the overall cost is essentially a holiday. You might as well treat it as one! It is one of the most inspiring and health-filled ways to such time, really. You come away feeling more wealthy with skills, friends, memories and inspiration to go for more in life.

Camps are definitely worth the effort for these reasons.

Step 7: Online Coaching

I set up the first version of the Online Coaching Program as a way to bridge the gap for participants in my training events who would go home to continue but have no local coach service to support them. Although I feel I can give you a superb level of personal guidance for your training through this online platform, I do think a live coaching and local TI swim club would be a more desirable arrangement. This program is second-best.

Update: We’ve upgraded our online coaching program and it is now called the Mediterra Swim Dojo. It has three levels of membership, several training courses, and quite a bit of advanced training information (found nowhere else in print in the TI world).

The coach-guided courses there are priced at $80 per month. It is less than the price for an hour of private coaching time though you may get more than an hour of coaching attention each month. I am personally interacting with each person in the program and therefore I must limit the number of students at one time.

The program is generally intended for those of you who have previously experience a certified live Total Immersion training event. I do interview each prospective participant and have made exceptions for those who have been self-coaching for a while with TI materials. When I interview you for the program I get a sense of where you are coming from, what your goals and needs are. You really need to have studied something of TI because everything we teach inside the Dojo will reference back to these concepts and principles, the skills and drills, and the training path. So, if you’ve already had that live coaching experience I have some assurance that I can communicate with you in a common language and mindset and take you further.

However, the program is evolving gradually, and it is becoming a good tool for those who are working on individual improvement projects or training for a particular goal. If you are not sure whether it will work for you or not, just ask, and we can discuss your situation. Very likely, your need will urge me to develop new things for the program.

Step 8: Video Analysis

Likewise, with video analysis, it is going to make more sense to you to receive video analysis after you have had some experience with Total Immersion methodology and training principles – at least it is going to be more encouraging, since you know how TI will work to address your needs once that analysis lays your stroke bare!

But, there are many things you are doing well, which you may not appreciate. We will point those out also.

For each swimmer I walk through the body, point-by-point, starting with the foundation and working outward to find what is working well and what needs some work. When we get down to How To Fix It, your prescription will follow a certain mindful, motor-training methodology which TI specializes in. For example, when I start talking about head position and spine alignment, and showing you what needs to be done to improve that, those uniquely TI fundamental skills and drills will be what I reference for your corrections. If you’ve done these drills on your own already, you’ll know what will be involved and what you can expect from the process. And I will show you more.

Video analysis is so enlightening and powerful because no matter what you think you were doing in your own imagination, the video tells the real story (at least the story that appears on the outside of your body, and we read the clues for what’s happening inside). It is common that when you have the root of your weaknesses and strengths exposed it will be both disappointing and hopeful. It is disappointing to see how far the swimmer in your imagination diverges from the one in the video. It will be hopeful because TI provides you with an extremely effective, systematic, and enjoyable way of working on those corrections.